This chapter establishes the broader contours of politics, conceived as a discrete domain of ethical behaviour. It begins by detailing some paradigmatic instances of political action, organised into two categories: 'direct' and 'indirect'. Next, it examines the relationship between political action and violence, arguing that although individual violent acts might instantiate ethically valuable politics to some degree, truly endemic violence is inimical to politics. Having established this, it turns to the relationship between politics, equality, and inclusion, arguing that politics takes place primarily within geographically demarcated communities and that, as a result, we are justified in prioritising the participation of our compatriots. Finally, this chapter examines the role played by governance institutions within contemporary states, arguing that they fulfil an essential facilitating function. This grants them 'quasi-independent' value as political 'artefacts', 'focuses', and 'forums'. Taken together, these various arguments bridge the conceptual and normative gap between the analysis of the previous chapter and the account of state creation advanced later in the book.

Cultural property has always been a target in armed conflicts. Even with the development of a regime for the protection of cultural property in armed conflict, such destructions continue to be a reality in contemporary armed conflicts. The effectiveness of this regime comes thus into question. This chapter aims to analyse a case study on the application of this regime: the Preah Vihear Temple case. During a fifty-five-year border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand in the area where the Temple is situated, several international forums have been seized with the protection of the Temple, including: the International Court of Justice (ICJ), United Nations Security Council (UNSC), UNESCO and a Joint Border Commission established by Cambodia and Thailand. This chapter will assess the contribution of all of these processes and agencies to the protection of cultural property in armed conflict regarding this study.

In 2013, the Philippines commenced arbitral proceedings against China under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Since the award was issued in 2016, which in large part was favourable to the Philippines, China has refused to recognise the award. This chapter offers an analysis of the arbitration proceedings and the award using a popular animated film – Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon – as a lens. The chapter analogises the themes in Raya with the factual background of the arbitration, with the aim of reshaping international support to help bring about compliance with the award. The conflict in Raya effectively communicates that conflict over scarce resources and overlapping territories cannot be resolved by aggression, mutual distrust, and lack of cooperation. While the Convention lacks a compliance mechanism, this chapter envisages that the Convention’s conciliation procedure may present a path forward even if China does not voluntarily comply with the award. This cooperative process aims to bring China back to the table, in renewed efforts towards a settled outcome.

Non-Compliance Procedures are designed to facilitate the compliance of States parties with obligations deriving from Multilateral Environmental Agreements but may trigger harsher means to elicit compliance such as suspension of a party’s rights. The chapter will analyse the classical NCPs such as those in the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters and the Kyoto Protocol. It will then analyse the new type of NCPs, established in the Paris Agreement and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. This chapter will analyse whether compliance is better ensured by more facilitative rather than coercive methods, together with NCPs’ legitimacy, including with reference to the powers of Conferences or Meetings of the Parties which mostly decide on non-compliance.

This chapter examines the duties of states to insiders (people living within a state’s physical territory) and outsiders (people in other states). It is argued that states have, provided the initiation of securitization is otherwise justified and that must cause is satisfied, an overriding duty to secure insiders from objective existential threat via securitization. Regarding morally mandatory other-securitization, the picture is more mixed, a range of costs to the self, including (1) the risk of death, disease, and disability; (2) the risk of instability and insecurity; and (3) financial costs can override an individual state’s obligation to secure and – where necessary – securitize outsiders from threat. This chapter goes on to examine what happens to pro tanto duties if states are liable for threat creation abroad. Moreover, it suggests a ranking of different triggers for remedial responsibility derived from common-sense morality, enabling the pinpointing of specific states as primary duty-bearers for morally mandatory other-securitization.

The present chapter has a two-fold aim. First, it maps the current state of international supervision in the area of international criminal law by looking particularly at the competence of treaty bodies and other non-compliance mechanisms (NCMs), their institutional and operative differences, progressive sophistication, and other developments in recent practice. Secondly, the chapter investigates the features of, and circumstances under which, NCMs established by specific international criminal law instruments are more effective than others in addressing situations of non-compliance and orientating the future actions of States.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is essential for nuclear disarmament and world peace. This chapter compares three dispute-settling mechanisms in the NPT legal complex using the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) as an example: political measures, non-compliance mechanisms (NCMs), and international courts and tribunals (ICTs). It evaluates the value of each mechanism to ensure Iran’s compliance with its commitments. The discussion includes NCMs like the JCPOA and the UN Security Council regimes and ICT proceedings like ICJ (International Court of Justice) and CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union). Fact-finding processes at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) are also emphasized. Finally, the relevance of these models for climate change, environmental protection, and creating a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone is discussed.

The introduction explains the purpose of this book and situates this book in the relevant literature. It discusses the meaning of securitization as used in this book, and it introduces Just Securitization Theory on which the theory of the moral duty to secure developed in this book builds. It also discusses the methods employed and methodology informing this work. Finally, it provides a chapter overview.

This chapter begins with the concepts of colonialism and imperialism, their ideological content and their association with power and control, domination and subordination as well as with a ‘civilizing process’. It goes on to examine early (European) colonizing activities in Oceania, all of which have shaped the region in one way or another, and then the quest to establish a ‘British Oceania’, pursued largely by colonists in Australia and New Zealand. This is followed by discussion of the Western Pacific High Commission, established initially as a means of controlling the behaviour of British subjects in the region. The last section highlights the fact that although the idea of a ‘Pacific World’ arose in the later colonial period, the persistence of imperial rivalries in the region until well into the twentieth century ensured that it remained a rather incoherent one.